


Retrouvailles

by prettyboytgc



Category: Dunkirk (2017) RPF, tom glynn carney
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 23:17:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15617193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyboytgc/pseuds/prettyboytgc
Summary: retrouvaillesnom féminin plurielFait, pour des personnes séparées, de se retrouver.Amis qui fêtent leurs retrouvailles.reunionplural feminine nounDone, for separated people, to find each other.Friends who celebrate their reunion.





	1. Chapter 1

Tom’s constant joyous attitude has become suspicious to his housemates and is confronted by Carl who tries to see what, or who, is causing his new found love for life and the reason behind his never disappearing smile

Sat cross-legged on the sofa, phone in hand, Tom typed away at a pace that could probably qualify him for the texting olympics. The smile on his face hadn’t left since she replied to his text earlier this morning, and yesterday morning, and the morning before that, and this sudden change in attitude since coming back from filming was obvious to his housemates.

“So who is Emilia-”

“Fucking hell mate.” Tom jumped as Carl’s voice suddenly appeared right next to his ear.

“-with two sparkling heart emojis, and why is she telling you that ‘you’re like yellow in her life’?” he read over his friend’s shoulder.

Tom dropped his phone, locking it quickly before it tossing it face down on the cushion next to him. A mumbling noise left his mouth as he brushed off Carl’s comment, aiming the remote at the tv and bringing up that one of their favourite films was on, as a change of conversation.

“Ay no, I’m not having this avoiding the question malarky. Who is she?” Tom looked dead in his eyes as if to say he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “How long have you known me, mate? You can tell me anything.”

Tom readjusted himself on the sofa to now be sat upright in his seat, feet on the floor, and Carl slipping down from the arm of the sofa to the cushion next to him.

“She’s, ummm. She’s a girl-” Tom spoke quietly but was interrupted mid-sentence.

“No! No way! She’s a girl?! Please tell me more.” He received a slap to the chest for his remark.

“Alright you sarky bastard, let me finish. She’s a girl I met at work actually. She was on work experience with the art department, shadowing the art director and stuff and I bumped into her one day in the catering tent and we ended up speaking for an hour. We exchanged numbers and met up a couple more times on set and that’s the story really.”

Tom remembered every detail as he retold the short version of what happened that day on set. He remembered the first thing he noticed about her was her voice. It was so quiet and almost scared, like she felt like she was doing wrong by speaking to him. She was carrying her laptop, a takeaway coffee cup and her phone as she bumped into him. Now he thinks about it, it was just as much his fault as hers. Neither of them were looking where they were going but she was insistent that she was to blame, apologising like there’s no tomorrow as she bent down to pick up the cup she had dropped. Luckily, there was only a drop left, so no major spillage. The first thing he said to her- “Hey I’ve got it,” but not that she heard over her repeated apologies.

Tom joined her, squatting to pick it up at the same time. He noticed she had red painted nails. But not a bold red, more of a dark maroon-like colour. His hand reached for the cup first, going to hand it back to her as they both stood back up, making eye contact for the first time.

“I’m so sorry about that. I wasn’t looking where I was going. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry,” her words quickly stumbled out.

“No, no. It’s fine, I wasn’t looking either.” This was when he first took in the person in front of him. Light skin with a slight tan, long brown hair resting over one shoulder, and eyes that appeared at first glance to be blue, but as he looked deeper into her eyes while listening to her apologise again, they could have been more of a green. At this point he realised that they had been stood in silence, looking at each other for a few moments, not long enough for it to be uncomfortable and creepy, but after realising and dropping the continued eye contact, the same thought must have registered with her and they then made it awkward.

“I’m Tom by the way.” He held out his hand for her to shake before realising she had no spare hand to offer him, resulting in them both letting out an awkward laugh.

“Emilia,” she replied nodding at him shyly.

“Do you maybe want to sit with me? I can get you another coffee if you want.” Tom asked and pointed to the empty cup in her hand.

“Oh I don’t want to be a bother.” She looked down and shook her head.

“No bother. Really. I insist.” He reached out to take the empty cup out of Emilia’s hand. “You pick a table and I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Thank you, Tom. And it was a hot chocolate. I just feel more grown up if it’s in a coffee cup.” Both there faces now adorned a smile at her comment.

“Hot chocolate, right. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He walked towards the vending machine, selecting hot chocolate, again laughing to himself. He’d known this girl barely 2 minutes and already knew that he wanted to keep talking to her, know more of her little quirks, and ask her if she thinks her eyes are blue or green.

Carl snaps Tom out of his little reminiscence with a question. “So, ‘yellow in her life’?” 

Tom smiled, “It’s an inside thing. Something we’ve talked about, because she’s an artist and has all these different opinions on colours. Relates them to different things and has different feelings based on them.”

“Hmm, I’d say you’re like red in my life. Obnoxious, angry and loud.” This caused the same reaction as before, a slap to the chest and a few choice words from Tom accompanied by them both cracking up next to each other.


	2. Chapter 2

When art student Emilia Glenhill bumps into actor Tom Glynn-Carney whilst working on the set of “Tolkien”, apologies are flying, cheeks are rosy and she realises she may know a little more about him than she first realised.

25th October 2017

Emilia chose a corner table. She always found that she could never just sit doing nothing on her own, it always made her feel uneasy. Even pretending to look busy made her feel more content being alone, so she pulled out her little notebook. She’d been making little notes in it each night when she went back to her hotel, just little things about what Emma, the assistant art director, had said, things she had leaned and little sketches of the scenes she saw. Taking out her pencil, she began doodling things that she saw in front of her. She was in the middle of her third sketch, a slim man on the opposite table who was deconstructing his sandwich, when Tom pulled out the chair and sat down, blocking her view.

She quickly shut the book and slipped it into her bag, hoping that Tom hadn’t noticed, as he put the two cups down on the table along with a plate carrying two brownies.

“Uh, I wasn’t sure what you liked so I went with brownies because who doesn’t like brownies?” He shrugged his shoulders. “You do like brownies right?”

Emilia giggled quietly and nodded, “Yes, thank you.”

Tom took a sip of his drink and placed one of the brownies on a napkin, offering the plate to Emilia.

“So what was that you were doing in the notebook? Drawing?” he asked with real interest. “I was going to ask what you’re working on here but I can take a guess, you’re on the art department.”

“Oh really, it was nothing. And yeah, I’m shadowing one of the assistant art directors for a week. I’m studying art at university and it counts towards one of my modules. And it’s really cool to see a completely different career option.” Tom raised his eyebrows and nodded. “I’m sorry I’m rambling, it’s just-”

“Hey.” Tom reached out, touching her hand to calm her down. He could clearly see she was nervous and he would expect that for someone completely new to the industry. “It’s alright. You don’t need to keep apologising.”

This comment caused her to blush. He was making her nervous and apologies were the only things she knew when she was nervous. Tom was the only person who had taken an interest since she got here. Yes, it had only been 3 days and Emma was nice enough, but no one had taken a real interest, no one had got to know anything about her. Not until now anyway.

This is when she really started to notice little things about him. His blonde hair was perfectly styled to one side apart from one little stray piece which had flopped down onto his forehead. He was wearing a really cosy looking jumper, a light shade of red which she suspected was due to fading in the wash, looking like it had been through the run of the mill. The sleeves of the jumper slightly hid the palms of his hands, something that she always seemed to find cute about anyone. This paired with the little crinkling action of his nose he did between sips of his drink in order to make her smile, made her become more comfortable in his presence. She’d barely known him 10 minutes, and already she wanted to find out more about him.

Oh my god. The thought snapped her out of her mini daydream. She hadn’t asked him about what he does. She’d made the little conversation they made between smiles and brownie bites all about her.

She’d answered his questions about her work on the film and her university course and never once had she asked about him. But was it too late now to bring it up? Would it be awkward so late in and was she just going to embarrass herself?

“Are you alright there?” Tom’s voice brought her back to reality. “You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”

Emilia thought it would probably be best if she was honest with him. He was being so kind to her after all.

“I’m just really nervous. This whole situation is very new to me and I just realised that I hasn’t even asked what you do. I mean, I know a pretty boy like you wouldn’t be hiding behind the camera and-” She cut herself off realising what she’d just said. And she clearly said it aloud based on the colour of Tom’s cheeks and the smile on his face. “-I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I just said that. I’m such an embarrassment.” Her cheeks joined Tom’s on the colour wheel.

“It’s alright. I wouldn’t have thought a pretty girl like you would be hiding behind the camera either.” Tom then went on to explain his role in the film. After mentioning his first roll in Dunkirk, Emilia’s eyes immediately lit up.

She’d connected the dots to where she’d seen him before. She couldn’t speak more highly of Dunkirk when she’d seen it. Her family and friends were sick to death of hearing how beautiful the cinematography was and how everyone was casted so well. Why she hadn’t recognised Tom sooner was a mystery to herself, but she couldn’t tell Tom all this. She’d probably already embarrassed herself enough without adding excited fangirl on top of that.

Instead she kept calm, took a deep breath and went on to ask him about his life, asking questions about his experience in university and comparing how different the experience was to hers. No one ever seemed to understand degrees in art subjects, whether it was film, art or performance, if it wasn’t academic, it tends to be brushed off, and this was something they could share.

They continued the conversation until they were interrupted by Tom’s phone ringing. He apologised before answering it.

He had such a gentle tone to his voice, calming and smooth like honey, trying not to listen into the conversation but also wanting to hear him talk for hours. She noticed how he began fiddling when on the phone, twirling the wooden stick, that had previously stirred his coffee, around his fingers. He smiled at her occasionally, making eye contact as he wandered his eyes around the room and pulling faces, showing she still had most of his attention even with someone else talking in his ear.

“Alright mate. Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can. See you in a bit.” Tom put the phone down and directed his full attention back to the shy, brunette in front of him. “So that was the assistant director and apparently I need to be back on set for a reshoot.” Emilia nodded, her heart slightly sinking at the news of his departure. “Can I borrow your notebook?”

Suddenly becoming aware of what he said, Emilia quickly unzipped her bag and took out the notebook and pen, opening it up to the next fresh page.

Tom took hold of the pen, scribbled something down, flicked the page to view the previous one and slid it back to her.

“That’s my number. Text me later and maybe we can meet up again tomorrow?”

She smiled and nodded, her head buzzing with elation.

“Your drawings are great by the way.” These were Tom’s last words to her before bidding her farewell with a wink.

She was left, butterflies erupting in her stomach and head still spinning, trying to hide her involuntary smile.

She checked the time on her phone. 46 minutes with him and already he had this effect on her.


	3. Chapter 3

When Emilia’s work experience comes to and end and she has to go back to normal life, Tom doesn’t think he can let go so soon, and neither can she.

That last day on set, they spent lunch together again, as every other day since first meeting. Tom had bought her a hot chocolate everyday without her asking, and even though she usually only had them on treat days, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that. The deal for him buying the drinks was that she reserved the table and drew him a little picture everyday. The money wasn’t an issue for him, it was only a couple pound a day, and he appreciated sentimentality way more. One day was a little doodle of a puppy she saw from her window, drawn on the little notepad from the hotel, another day was a landscape of a beach and a little sail boat, after hearing him talk about the surfing holidays he went on with his family. But today’s drawing was different.

“One hot chocolate, one tea for me and I couldn’t resist the blueberry muffin so I thought we could share. Now what have you got for me today, Lady Picasso?” Tom sat down in the chair opposite, the same chair they first had lunch in. This had become their table, even if Emilia didn’t reserve it, no one would sit in it, having seen them have extensive conversations there everyday. Routine had built up over the past 5 days.

“Uh, I don’t want this to appear weird or creepy in anyway but I did this.” She took the loose page out of her sketchbook, sliding it across the table to Tom. 

She had grown more comfortable in his presence as time went on, but there were still things that made her nervous. She had been giving him really quick sketches as to not cause too much disappointment if he didn’t like them, because she hadn’t spent a whole lot of time on them. He could never not like anything she gave him though. He was mesmerised by her. Something about being around her made him feel like the sun was shining brighter and the birds were singing sweeter. He was instantly warmer around her, and these little tokens from her radiated that warmth when he looked at them, alone in his room at night.

“I-is this me?” Tom turned over the paper to see a beautifully sketched out portrait of himself drawn in crosshatch with a black biro. 

“Do you like it? Is it creepy?” Emilia was met with a no word reaction, leaving her waiting in anticipation for his thoughts. Instead she was sat, looking at Tom as he inspected every element of the a5 drawing. He ran his fingers over the darker areas, feeling the indentations in the page and moving it closer to his face to focus on the detail in the eyes.

“Wow.” Tom breathed out, Emilia now a little less on edge but still had the worry that it wasn’t a good wow, but more of a shocked wow. “This is,” he paused and started stumbling over the sentence on his tongue, “I don’t have words. It’s amazing! I mean, I knew you were good but I didn’t know you were this good!”

A beaming smile grew on Emilia’s face with this reaction. It had gone better than she ever could have imagined, and she had imagined it from the minute she had put the lid back on the pen.

“Now I’m starting to think I should have got the carrot cake, I don’t know if blueberry is good enough payment for this.”

“Tom stop it!” They both laughed together, Emilia’s head tilting down from flattery as she played with the hair tucked behind her ear.

“I mean it though. Thank you so much for this. It’s incredible.” He reached over the table like on the first day they met, stroking his thumb over her knuckles, before pulling out the folder from his bag which contained his script, sliding the drawing in behind it in attempt to keep it pristine.

“You have really set your standards for tomorrow now Em.” She smiled at the little nickname he’d come accustomed to calling her. Usually she wasn’t big on name shortening, normally only her family being able to get away with it, but she couldn’t help but bubble with happiness when said in his voice.

Ah shit, what did he say? Tomorrow?

“Actually Tom.” He looked up from putting his bag back on the floor. “I’m going home tomorrow morning.” Both their eyes dulled and hearts sank as she said the words. Over the couple of days that they’ve known each other, they’ve bonded. The unlikely pairing of the shy and nervous little art student and the outgoing actor, becoming friends. Actually, a little more than friends. It was a strange relationship where they both felt empty without the other, but also not knowing what their feelings were.

Emilia had always been the type to not understand her own feelings. Do I like them as a friend? Do I like them romantically? Am I just grateful that they are being nice to me? It was the same with Tom. Yes, he was clearly very attractive, but were the feelings she was having confusing attraction with ‘he’s just a very positive person to be around’?

“Emilia?” She shook her head and opened her eyes wider briefly, returning to reality with the sound of his voice. “I said what time are you leaving? Do you want me to come to the station with you?”

“Oh I couldn’t ask you to do that. My train is at 9am from James Street so I don’t want you to have to get up early especially when you’ve got a late call time tonight, right?”

“Well yeah but I also don’t want to make you leave on your own. And you know I have to show my gratitude for this amazing drawing with something more than half a blueberry muffin and a drink.”

She was thankful that he had even considered this. He was truly the only person that saw her as more than a shadow following round a crew member all day. It was constantly in the back of her mind that she would get on the train to go home and no one would even notice that she was missing, and just by this one concerned sentence, she had the reassurance that even if he forgot about her in a weeks time, he was still made the effort to be nice to her while they worked together.

It was eight thirty in the morning, Emilia was showered and packed, ready to leave for the station. Her hair was hung loose over her shoulders, the oversized burgundy jumper she wore covered half her thighs and her over knee boots left only the minimal amount of black tights on show. She wouldn’t usually wear such an outfit this early in the morning, but this was the last time she was seeing Tom, she wanted to make a lasting impression.

It was eight thirty in the morning, Tom was running round the room, a pair of boxer shorts were the only thing leaving him from being completely nude. His hair was flopping over his face, a light shading of stubble decorating his chin and a toothbrush hung out of the corner of his mouth as he tried to multitask getting ready. He’d slept through his alarm, which would have allowed him a sufficient amount of time to be awake, showered and dressed to meet the pretty brown haired girl in the hotel reception.

She made her way to the lift, dragging her little union jack suitcase behind her, the sound of her heels echoing in the empty corridor. 

He combed his fingers through his hair, taming the mess blonde curls, and threw on the closest pair of jeans he saw. Still bare chested, he dug through the contents of his suitcase to find a clean tshirt, then slid his feet into his Docs, cringing at that fact he wasn’t wearing socks, but he didn’t have time for that.

Reaching the reception, Emilia checked out, handing in her key card and headed towards the small sofa by the window, watching the few people who wandered around the docks at such a time.

She checked her phone- 8:46am, she had fourteen minutes to make it to the station, which luckily was only a five minute walk away, take away the five minutes to make sure she definitely made it on time, she had four minutes to wait for Tom who said he would meet her six minutes ago in this very spot.

Panic started to build up. What if the crossings weren’t in her favour and it takes longer to get there than she initially thought?

Panic had already built up. The lift was on a floor miles below his, slowly making it’s way up as he called for it. He didn’t even have time to tie his shoelaces in a rush, so he took his time to do so. He checked the time, 8:48am.

“Shit.” He whispered as the lift dinged open. Pressing the button repeatedly in attempt that it would move faster, his whole body was buzzing with adrenaline.

Finally reaching the ground floor, Tom rushed out to the spot they said they’d meet. Scouting out the area, he couldn’t see the familiar face.

“Fuck.” Another whispered curse left his mouth. “Excuse me,” briskly walking over to the front desk, “Has an Emilia Glenhill checked out yet?”

“She has just left yes. She waited here for a couple minutes but you’ve just missed her by about a minute, Sir” the lady on the desk replied. He nodded a thank you and ran to the front door, looking left and right to see if she had got far.

Walking with disappointment, Emilia made her way to the station, alone. Shivering in the cold October air, she wished she had brought her coat rather than her thin leather jacket, but instead attempted to warm up by increasing her pace. Reaching the station, she reached into her purse for her ticket to enter the station, halting when she felt her phone vibrating.

“Tom?” She answered.

“Em, don’t go through the barrier.” He was gasping for breath.

“What are you talking about? Are you running?”

She turned around to be met by the blonde boy, now red faced and collapsing to his knees to catch his breath. She hung up the phone and bent down to meet his current height.

“Oh thank god you haven’t gone through. I couldn’t forgive myself if I missed you.” He began to regain a regulated heartbeat and steady breathing, as well as internally thanking himself for tying his laces when he did. “Jesus, running can kiss my arse.”

“I did wait for you Tom. But I was going to be late and I thought you’d stood me up.” She had such a gentle voice, still calm even when someone had literally just ran to make sure he got to say goodbye.

“I know and I’m so sorry. My alarm didn’t wake me and I couldn’t find any clothes and-” He was cut off by her telling him to stop talking to catch his breath properly. They both returned to regular height when they heard the announcement that her train was arriving in six minutes.

“You should go but before you go, can I, um, can I give you a hug?” Tom scratched the back of his head and bit the inside of his cheek.

Emilia froze up. Someone she’d expected to forget about her about a day after meeting, just ran to meet her and is now asking for a hug.

She nodded and leaned in. Tom mirrored her action. The height difference became apparent, her head being nestled into his chest as their arms wrapped tightly around each other.

They stood for a minute in each other’s embrace, feeling like it was just the two of them in the world, before pulling apart at another announcement for the train.

“A bit of a purple moment this, isn’t it?”

Tom looked at her confused. “I’m sorry you’ve lost me there.”

“Purple. A bit bruising and dismal.” She said the words without thinking, not realising how it may sound to Tom. Quickly she felt the need to explain herself. “I mean, it kind of hurts that I have to go but I know it’s not going to kill me.”

“I get it, it kinda hurts me that you’re leaving too. But you’re going to keep in touch right.” He tried to reach out for her hand, but after realising she hadn’t caught on to his move, he ran his hand through his hair.

“You want me too? I just thought that you’d just get on with your life without me, I know I’m nothing special and-”

“Hey. No, don’t say that. You have made my week so amazing, I’ve actually been more excited for lunchtime than actually being on set.” A small tear began to build up in her eye, but she refused to let it fall, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of someone who had made her feel so important.

“I promise I’ll keep in touch.” She sniffled at his kind words, and slowly collected her things, as encouraged by Tom, having about two minutes to get to the platform and get on her train.

After going through the barrier and walking towards the lift, she turned, eyes still being met with the dazzling blue of his. “And Tom, thank you so much. For everything,” being the last words she said to him before stepping through the doors.

He knew she was a special one. One to make a effort with, to keep in his life. He still wasn’t sure what it was, but something told him not to let her go.


End file.
